Driver walks free after seriously injuring rider! WTF?

It'll keep them off the roads for a while. best we can do. Might as
well do it.

 

Subject to justification and review: I want to know why this guy who
hurt a motorcyclist has already been "punished enough" when a person
who hits a drunk lying in the middle of the road in the dead of night
gets a more serious punishment.

Cases like this, left unexplained, damage public confidence in the
justice system. When to much of that happens, you get mobs taking the
law into their own hands as has been amply demonstrated in cronulla
recently.

 

dear GOD! as senator, no less, doing time. Looks to me like your
courts are doing a bang up job compared to ours.

 

No. That "remorse" shouldn't be a factor for letting someone off. The
magistrate in this particular case said that the driver "had suffered
enough". Enough what? Hassles about being called to account for his
actions?

Sorry, Zebee. But where the actions of a person result in another's
death, or who is inflicted with permanent disabilities they shouldn't be
able to walk free. Whether a custodial sentence, loss of licence, fines
or whatever be applied, it should be commensurate with the offence, the
consequences and so on.

Clearly, in this case, the beak's telling the public that if you show
"remorse" then you'll get off.

Of course, had the fellow been speeding, then he'd probably cop a
penalty.

But tell me, what's the difference between speeding and failing to give
way? In the eyes of the law, one exposes you to the potential of a
crash, the other causes a crash. Yet in this case, the latter was deemed
to be not worthy of a conviction. And the former is deemed to be a
heinous act, judging by the law enforcement and penalty regime
associated with it.

It's not balanced, and in a lot of cases, it isn't fair, either. A
person doing 4 km/h over a posted limit, anywhere, any time, can cop a
$125 fine. Yet, someone who failed to give way, causes permanent
disabilities, etc. walks free without fine or conviction. If he does it
again, it won't be brought up in court.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sat, 21 Jan 2006 08:14:55 +1100

So you are familiar with the case? Can you name the court, the
magistrate? I'd be interested to see the transcript.

He may have deserved more. The point is I don't *know* and someone
who was there disagrees with you.

I am not sure how much being a good bloke who made a fuckup deserves
punishment because someone else was in the wrong place at the wrong
time compared to someone with a pattern of carelessness.

Without knowing more than a 2 paragraph report, I'm not willing to
judge.

I turned the light on the same day that a coal miner died. How
responsible am I?

I think there are two ethical reasons to deliver punishment. One is
as deterrent to others - and it's proven to be not very good at that -
and the other is to be deterrent to the person who did the wrong thing.

What will it do to that person? Hurt them and make them sorry.

How hurt must someone be before you are satisfied?

There is a third reason - to show that the community thinks some
things are wrong, and that is I think what people are annoyed about.

What was wrong - turning into the driveway, hitting the rider, or
turning into the driveway without due care?

What exactly happened? I'd like to know. What did the driver do?
What didn't he do? What was the visibility, what were the relative
speeds, the street furniture, the road surface?

IN cases like the one in front of him. Is he saying so in all cases?
I suppose it depends what led him to this decision.

Which I don't know.

THe magistrate *may* have done a henious thing. I don't know.
Because I don't know what was said in the court, the circumstances of
the crash, any mitigating circumstances, the way the accused presented
or anything.

So I'm not willing to judge without facts.

Because it is mandatory sentencing.

Which is done by legislation, not by magistrates. Who get to exercise
discretion.

YOu disagree with the discretion this one exercised. Bt you have
nothing but the facts that someone was hurt, and that no conviction
was recorded.

Given those you are prepared to judge someone incompetent. I'm not.

I don't know if the magistrate is an idiot who doesn't care, or if he
or she is someone with long experience of human nature who saw something
the reporter didn't or didn't choose to mention. Until I know more than
I do now, I won't be in any lynch mob.

I don't think the current speeding enforcement is sensible because it's
not about road safety it is about revenue.

It's used because it's easy to collect and it is a behaviour that's
hard to extinguish. Especially given the current system where most
people speed all the time and few get caught, those who do get the
punishment long after the crime so there's no connection.

I don't think the speeding fine business is anything to do with road
safety or preventing crashes by deterrence. It isn't anything at all
to do with how to deal with people who crash or behave ina way likely
to cause a crash.

NO point in dragging it in because it has left the realm of common
sense years ago. If you speak of it in the same breath as road safety
without a "nothing to do with" in there, then you just buy into the
crap the governments are selling.

If you or anyone here really cared, they'd get onto the court in
question, get a transcript, maybe even write an enquiring letter to
the magistrate. Explaining why it is important that the right message
be sent.

How much do you care? Are you willing to find out the facts, draft a
submission to the Attorney General's dept?

Is anyone who has been howling here willing to take that step?

Zebee

 

We already felt sorry for your mum.

Theo

 

Even if you think you have made eye contact, don't assume they have seen you.
3 months after I bought my first bike, I saw the car waiting to turn across my
path, He looked in my direction and thought fine he has seen me, and even when
he started to inch over the line I though he is getting ready to go once I am
past, but no, he pulled out in front of me, I hit his back door and went over
the handle bars and head butted his car, then fell over as the the bike fell
over. First words out of his mouth were " sorry, I didn't see you " I was
sorry that he didn't see me too !


Mark.